Democrats insist they plan to win in November by campaigning everywhere, including rural America, where they have lost considerable ground in recent elections. They also are unabashedly embracing labor unions, abortion rights, and action on climate change.
“We're going to leave out no part of America,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told an enthused crowd at a Democratic National Committee Rural Council meeting Tuesday at the party’s convention in Chicago.
“We're going to fight for every community, every county, every part of this country. All of our people deserve great leadership,” he said, adding that “the moment we win, we take those [Democratic] hats off, and we serve every single American.”
Beshear and other Democrats who have spoken at the convention thus far have preached unity and hit Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance hard for divisive rhetoric.
“We're at a boiling point in this country, and we deserve better,” the Kentucky governor said. “Every day, it's the back and forth. We're asked to pick a side on everything from the car we drive to the beer we drink. But we know that the most important issues aren't necessarily D or R, red or blue. We deserve an America where we remember that we are Americans first.”
The ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz may only need to make modest gains, former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp told the same group.
Heitkamp told the audience that when Walz was picked to be Harris’s running mate, “I could hardly contain myself,” so pleased was she that the governor of a mostly rural state had been chosen.
“What does this mean for our ability to take back rural America?” she asked. “I'm not a political genius, but I do know a little bit about winning campaigns in pretty tough states. And what I believe is, if we can just do 5% better, and then the next time do 10% better, and the next time do 20% better and bring back rationality.”
Data compiled by Pew Research Center show a steady shift of rural voters toward the Republican Party. In 2000, the GOP held a narrow 51%-45% advantage over Democrats among rural voters who were Republicans or leaned Republican.
However, “that grew substantially over the next decade,” Pew said. “By 2010, the GOP’s advantage had widened to 13 percentage points. It has nearly doubled since then, and the Republican Party now holds a 25-point edge over the Democratic Party.”
Anthony FlaccaventoAnthony Flaccavento, a Virginia farmer and executive director of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, told Agri-Pulse in an interview on the sidelines of the convention, that he hopes Harris and other Democratic candidates send a message to rural voters that “we screwed up by not investing in the people who grow our food, who who bring our timber to market and build our homes. … And we're not going to make that mistake again.”
Fighting for family farmers and other working people is “essential to the well being of our country, it's just critical, and at the same time, it's the message that can actually start to win back more working folks and rural people,” he said.
Speaking at the Rural Council meeting, Beshear drew cheers when he explained how he governs a rural state: “I'm a proud pro-union governor, I'm a proud pro-public education governor, I'm a proud pro-choice governor, I am a proud pro-diversity governor, and I'm a proud pro-Kamala Harris for president governor.”
Democrats continue to embrace the labor movement, whose members turned out heavily for a Labor Council event Monday that featured leaders of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), the AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers and others.
Offering a glimpse into a future that will probably only become reality if Democrats can keep the White House, hold onto the Senate, and recapture the House of Representatives, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “We're going to improve health care, we're going to make sure we have more job training, we're going to support union apprenticeship programs. We're going to pass the PRO Act."
The PRO Act is short for The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, legislation that “restores the right of workers to freely and fairly form a union and bargain together for changes in the workplace,” the AFL-CIO says. The Senate has not acted on it since it was reported favorably from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about a year ago.
Democrats also plan to lean into environmental issues, particularly climate change, by pointing to government initiatives funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Most voters say climate change is important to their vote, said Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee’s Environmental & Climate Crisis Council.
In fact, she said, surveys conducted by DFP show that “over 60% of voters want Vice President Harris to carry the legacy that she's established with President Biden of tackling climate change head-on, and voters want to see her continue passing ambitious climate action.”
Michelle Chan, vice president of programs at Friends of the Earth, said polling shows that 72% of young voters who say they care about climate issues are “extremely likely” to vote, compared to 57% of young voters overall.
“So we know that people who care about climate are more likely to vote,” Chan said. “So, that's a great reason to go out and lead with that.” For those wondering if that makes sense, she said the 2024 election, like the one in 2020, is likely to be close, and could be decided by small margins in multiple states.
Lydia Johnson contributed to this report.
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